Girardi: Optimistic Joba could leave hospital Sunday

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The two days since Joba Chamberlain suffered a gruesome and possibly career-ending injury on a trampoline seem to have gone about as well as could be expected.

Joe Girardi said Saturday afternoon that Chamberlain will be released from St. Joseph's Hospital Sunday. The implication of the release is that Chamberlain, who suffered an open dislocation of his right ankle Thursday, is out of the woods with regard to some of the more severe post-accident threats, including infection.

"If he gets out today or tomorrow, I think that shows you that would be extremely positive," general manager Brian Cashman said earlier in the day.

Results of an MRI and CT scan showed no microfractures, Girardi said, adding that Chamberlain, 26, will be in a cast for the next six weeks.

The freakish accident occurred while Chamberlain was with his 5-year-old son, Karter, at an indoor amusement center.

Experts have said the injury not only is likely to prevent Chamberlain -- who was ahead of schedule in his recovery from Tommy John surgery -- from pitching again this season but could end his career.

"That's a concern," Girardi said Saturday. "You look at the elbow, he was ahead of most people's time frame. No one really knows how someone's body is going to heal. I have faith he's going to heal and we're going to have him back."

When Cashman visited Chamberlain in the hospital Friday afternoon, he said the pitcher told him he is hopeful he can be back on the mound in July.

"That's what he told me the doctors are telling him," Cashman said, clarifying that "on the mound" means in a practice capacity. "That's the optimistic side, but I'm only getting that from Joba. I don't think anybody can tell anybody directly right now anything on that."

Said Girardi: "I don't think that's necessarily out of the question." But given the seriousness of the injury, throwing in any capacity this season would seem a long shot for Chamberlain.

"In the best of circumstances, you would not put weight on it for two to three months, let alone trying to [throw]," Dr. Steven Weinfeld, the chief of foot and ankle service and associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said in an interview Friday morning, speaking of the type of injury Chamberlain suffered. "It would be very surprising if he pitched at all this year."

When Cashman visited Chamberlain Friday afternoon, he said the reliever was "down," though fellow reliever David Robertson said "he was feeling good" when he visited Friday night.

Cashman was asked several times about the circumstances of the injury and whether they fell in the category of "unacceptable" behavior away from the field.

"He's laying in a hospital bed dealing with so much different stuff, that's not something I've even looked at or focused on," Cashman said. "I'm sad about it. Anybody who's a father has taken their child to one of these types of facilities. This is just a tragic accident, a freak accident that has occurred."

When asked if he might address his players and stress the necessity of staying away from such places, Cashman shrugged.

"It's hard to say," he said. "How do you tell a group of people not to be a father? How do you tell a guy, don't take your kid fishing because you're a pitcher and you might hook your finger by accident? Don't go out in the backyard and play with your dog and a Jack Russell terrier bites you in the finger like it did David Cone . . . Life can throw you some unexpected twists. This is certainly an unexpected circumstance. I do know what he was doing was in the capacity of a father spending real quality time with his son, and I'm just sorry that something tragic came from that. Hopefully, the best-case scenario will play its way out."